[Dolle Dolf]

Hullo folks long time no visit.


I have a 2003 Outback plane Jane manual, with the winter package, that has a busted engine, and high miles (208k) that i drove as a winter car for the past 2 years, put 40k miles on it, so not complaining.


Ran into a 2002, plane Jane, same colour (!), a lot less miles (124k), in pretty good nick. The spare tyre was inflated to 60psi! But it lacks the winter package. I was thinking of swapping the heated mirrors as I do like the defogger function. Is this a straight forward swap, is the wiring in place, is it a matter of connecting a few plugs, or is it more involved that that?


Same for the heated seats. Do these have an element that comes in/out easily or is this a bear of a job?


I already noticed swapping the passegner sun visor that the connector was different (so on light on the make-up mirror, no biggie). So these electrical transplants may be more involved than they seem.

Thanks for looking.

 

[pepperface]

you could do an engine swap... that way you will still have the heated wipers too... then offset the price by selling off the parts that are still... but it all depends which car has the best body, little to no rust, any major body damage etc etc etc....
btw if you go this route.... dips on the center concel ...lol

 

[canubaru]

the rule of thumb is, if the option was offered on the car when it was new then the wiring is probably there.

but i don't think heated seats were an option for the legacy L in 02.

 

[babiker712]

Dolle Dolf, you may have to fab some wiring, but I added heated seats to my non-heated LGT 2000. There's an OEM way to do it, and an easier way to do it. I had the seats, switches and harness , rather than figure out the wiring, I added the switches, cut the wires and tapped the 12v at the cigarette outlet to power them. Door harnesses should be plug in play if you have the wiring for the mirrors.

Wiring for the seats is present up to the connection in the passenger kick panel on your L, nothing forward.

Good luck, do some research here, nasioc, SLi and Legacy GT. That's where I got my info from

 

[lockmedic]

Heated mirrors:

Swap the mirrors, door harnesses, and driver's switch. Door harnesses are a bit of a PITA as the fenders have to be loosened or removed to get the door harness boots removed/replaced.

Heated seats:

Remove the seats, console, and carpet from both cars. Dissect the harness for the heated seats and remove the cords for the seat heaters. They have a couple of grounds connected under the passenger's seat, and they're connected to the cigarette lighter circuit (including the rear power port) via a large (14ga give or take) blue wire at the passenger's door sill, just ahead of the B pillar. Snip that whole mess out and transplant it to the new car.

I will say it's much easier to grab the wiring from a parts car, not so much a car you're planning to resell. Not impossible, just not as much fun.

Hope you're not wanting to transplant the wiper de-icer as that one's a chore. . . and involves swapping windshields. Probably easier to buy a replacement windshield with heater and wire it up via rocker switch.

 

[babiker712]

Heated mirrors:

Swap the mirrors, door harnesses, and driver's switch. Door harnesses are a bit of a PITA as the fenders have to be loosened or removed to get the door harness boots removed/replaced.

Heated seats:

Remove the seats, console, and carpet from both cars. Dissect the harness for the heated seats and remove the cords for the seat heaters. They have a couple of grounds connected under the passenger's seat, and they're connected to the cigarette lighter circuit (including the rear power port) via a large (14ga give or take) blue wire at the passenger's door sill, just ahead of the B pillar. Snip that whole mess out and transplant it to the new car.

I will say it's much easier to grab the wiring from a parts car, not so much a car you're planning to resell. Not impossible, just not as much fun.

Hope you're not wanting to transplant the wiper de-icer as that one's a chore. . . and involves swapping windshields. Probably easier to buy a replacement windshield with heater and wire it up via rocker switch.

Yeah I got lucky and was able to cut the wiring out of an Outback shell the guy who sold me the switches had. Made it pretty easy. I also picked up a wiper deicer switch from him and had my windshield replaced with a wiper deicer by insurance. Started looking at it and ultimately decided it wasn't worth the effort to wire up when I looked at one in a junkyard. I don't want to pull my dash.

 

[Normy]

Hullo folks long time no visit.


I have a 2003 Outback plane Jane manual, with the winter package, that has a busted engine, and high miles (208k) that i drove as a winter car for the past 2 years, put 40k miles on it, so not complaining.


Ran into a 2002, plane Jane, same colour (!), a lot less miles (124k), in pretty good nick. The spare tyre was inflated to 60psi! But it lacks the winter package. I was thinking of swapping the heated mirrors as I do like the defogger function. Is this a straight forward swap, is the wiring in place, is it a matter of connecting a few plugs, or is it more involved that that?


Same for the heated seats. Do these have an element that comes in/out easily or is this a bear of a job?


I already noticed swapping the passegner sun visor that the connector was different (so on light on the make-up mirror, no biggie). So these electrical transplants may be more involved than they seem.

Thanks for looking.

I've not worked on any of these systems on my '01 LL Bean, but it has the heated seats.

It occurs to me that you are looking at a pretty involved swap. If you have lots of time to kill, then go for it. H*e*l*l, you could always swap the seats, and simply run wires and inline fuses from the battery directly to the seats, with cheap switches from the auto parts store. I wouldn't do it, but it would work-

A better idea would be to simply buy a newer car with seat heat, but that may or may not work with your financials. I say try it, if you can't make it work Subaru, make it work Normy, as I've detailed above.

Good luck!

 

[lockmedic]

I would NOT attach heated seats directly to the battery. If you ever forget to turn them off, you will run your battery dead in short order.

Wire them up to the cigarette lighter circuit. It's what Subaru uses, it's ignition-switched, and it's already fused appropriately. As long as you don't have any high-draw appliances plugged in at the same time you're fine. Swap the fuse for a circuit breaker if you get tired of replacing fuses.

 

[Dolle Dolf]

thanks all, looks a bit over my head TBH. I always considered those items nice, but not a necessity, so it looks like I will be plane jane-ing it for the foreseeable future. Thanks for all the replies!

 

[Regardie]

Bumping a slightly old thread. I recently purchased a 2000 legacy GT Limited, it has all the options except the all weather package which was not offered in that model that year. I would like to add the seat heaters and the heated mirrors to my car. I did the work on my 97 L sedan with parts pulled from an Outback so I am not afraid of the mechanical or electrical work, even did a DIY about it on SL-i.net.

On the 2nd gen, or 1st gen Outback, there was a relay in the passenger footwell that powered the heated seats and the rear accessory outlet, did that carry over to the 00-04s?

Are the switches near the parking brake still?

The heated mirrors need the door harnesses still but the switch has moved to the door control area from the dashboard so how much more door harness do I need?

Anything else I might need to know?

 

[Benadam]

Regardie, have you done the heated mirror swap already? I'm thinking about doing the same thing from a 2000 OB base model, which is kind of a play area for me.

 

[DavidPeab]

I'm waiting for the parts to do the heated mirrors on mine. I have the switch and mirrors. Wire harnesses are coming soon. I could let you know how it goes. I have an extra switch if you'd be interested.